NHL:The Great One - I pity anyone that neve got to see him skate at a game. No matter where he was on the ice, he could find an open person for a pass.

Baseball:Kirby Puckett - By far the best I've see. Although, I'd give a nod to Nolan Ryan. I loved watching him pitch. 40-yr old dude striking out 200+ a season (just like The Rocket is doing now).

Basketball:Jordan. I saw Bird and Magic on TV a lot, but never saw them in person at a game. His Air-ness was incredible though. I remember him being really tall, but that was probably because I was shorter.

I've also seen many MANY other great NHLers play, including Gretzky, but nothing and nobody will top Lemieux to me. I've witnessed first-hand his skill on the ice. I've never seen anyone parallel him.

Beyond that... I've seen some great football players. Pittsburgh's been known to sport some of the best, even in our off years like last year. Jerome Bettis is my fav currently, and though he had a tough year last year he's still one of the all-time great RB's. Miss the old Jerome is all.

I'll go with "in person" as well, although my list isn't all that spectacular.

Baseball: George Brett, Bo Jackson, Danny Tartabull, Don Mattingly (we drove down and went to KC Royals games three summers in a row when I was younger, played the Yankees at the last one I can remember best) I was fortunate enough to get several autographs back then when I collected baseball cards too.

Football: Being in Nebraska, its mostly Huskers. My favorite would be Ahman Green, he was awesome and I'm glad to see him being successful in the NFL now too. We've had some others that have gone on to successful pro careers that I've seen up close and in person as well, including Grant Wistrom, Mike Brown, Mike Rucker, DeJuan Groce, Will Shields, and others. Although not the greatest pros, they were great college players: Trev Alberts, Tommie Frazier, Scott Frost, and Eric Crouch. There were also some notables on some of the opponents of Nebraska....Kordell Stewart, Ricky Williams, etc.

Basketball: We went to an NBA exhibition that was held in Omaha when I was in junior high I believe. It was Sonics-Bucks, so I got to see Shawn Kemp (when he was good), Gary Payton, and some other NBAers. My dad and I always wanted to make the trip to Chicago to see Jordan play just once, but unfortunately we were not able to. I followed the Bulls religiously from 1988 until the Jordan-Pippen led team broke up. Also, again, saw a few Huskers...although not many have had really super careers, but solid: Erick Strickland, Tyronn Lue, Mikki Moore.

Baseball: I have to say Nolan Ryan The game I went to was an awesome one at that. Me and my buddy had seats right along the first base line in the first row, got to watch Juan Gonzalez go apesh!t in the clubhouse after he didn't hit a homer in BP. Ryan struck out at least 12. We got on the jumbotron and we almost got Tom Henke to give us a high five as he walked to the dugout

Over the next several years he continued to pile up impressive power totals for a series of mediocre Tiger teams. In the ninth inning of an April 2nd game at the Minnesota Metrodome, Fielder took off from first on a hit-and-run and lumbered safely into second when Melvin Nieves swung through the pitch and catcher Greg Myers' throw kicked off the heel of shortstop Pat Meares. It was Fielder's first stolen base at any level since 1984, and his first ever in 1,096 major-league games, a record for the most games at the start of a career without a steal. The Minnesota crowd cheered wildly after learning that it was his first steal, and after the game a Twins' attendant delivered the base to his locker. "The pressure is off now," Fielder said. "He (manager Buddy Bell) might start moving me a little more now that he has seen me run. Hopefully he won't."